Saturday 17 March 2012

Your Baba did what, now?


Baba Ganoush. Yum. Who would have thought that a eggplant could be so yummy.

Put your eggplant in the crockpot. Pock a few holes in it first with a fork.


Add the juice from one lemon, a few cloves of garlic, and cook it up on high for about 3 hours until, if you poke it with a fork it gets mushy.



Take it out and process the garlic and eggplant in a food processor until it is a smooth. Add a little bit of olive oil, the juice from half a lemon, a little coriander, a little cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Traditional recipes call for tahini. I never have tahini in the house, so I put about a table spoon of almond butter and that seems quite yummy.



Use it as a spread for sandwiches. I like to eat it with President's Choice Hemp and black sesame tortilla chips.


Enjoy!

xo Jo

Friday 16 March 2012

today I am turquoise

Turquoise, or Turkish stone- clarity of thought, open communication, holy stone, talisman, bringer of good fortune. Be calmed by its soothing effects.




xo Jo

Thursday 15 March 2012

why buy it when you can make it yourself?



Why buy something when you can drive yourself crazy making it on your own? That's my motto! Let's face it- it's fun to make stuff. There is a tremendous sense of achievement and self-sufficiency, for me anyway, when I can do stuff myself. Especially if it means reducing dependence on consumer items, decreasing spending and improving the quality of the item in question.


Once you have tried home made yoghurt, you will never eat store bought stuff again. I swear.


Here is a simple simple way to make yoghurt yourself.


1 litre of organic whole milk
1 litre of (preferably) organic cream
now, you can either use a starter that you get in a health food store- look for little packets in the fridge section, or you can use a container of organic yoghurt- make sure it is a full fat one- preferably a Greek yoghurt. Once you have your own batch of yoghurt you won't need the starter as you can just use some reserved yoghurt for the next batch. Although I find that throwing in a little of the packet starter helps ensure very thick creamy yoghurt.


heat milk and cream to just about boiling. I use a thermometer and heat it to 180 degrees. Let it cool down to 110 degrees. Add the starter and stir well. I pour the milk/cream into a ceramic bowl- I usually use the crockpot (NOT turned on) as a good incubation chamber. Once the milk has cooled, and I've added the starter, I wrap the crock pot it in a towel. Let it incubate for 10 hours. 


Yum. You can add fruit:








or honey:


This recipe makes about 2.5 750 gr sized containers of yoghurt. 
and look how thick it is!




Next I'm going to see if I can make yoghurt using one part coconut milk. I'll let you know how it turns out!


xo Jo

Wednesday 14 March 2012

more reasons to buy organic and in bulk!

 

This just in from Sustainable Food News:


Buy organic, natural foods in bulk and save 89%, study saysFirst-of-its kind U.S. study examines the economical and environmental benefits of buying bulk foods

The reduction in packaging that heads to the landfill itself is remarkable. If for no other reason we should do it in order to reduce our landfill.

Anybody want to go grocery shopping?

xo Jo